Nyambe is an option, Soiri is not

Indecision and FIFA rules are the factors keeping two of our local stars playing abroad out of the Brave Warriors.
Limba Mupetami
The gaffer of the senior football side the Brave Warriors, Ricardo Mannetti, explained why the two local but foreign-based players Pyry Soiri and Ryan Nyambe, do not feature for the senior national football team.

Football fans have raised the issue querying the reason why the internationally based duo of Pyry Soiri and Ryan Nyambe are not called up for the national team.

Without hesitation, Mannetti explained that he has, for the last few years, tried to get the likes of 23-year-old Soiri, who plays for club Shakhtyor Soligorsk in Finland, and England-based Ryan Nyambe, 19, who plays for Blackburn Rovers, to join the national side.

Soiri is the son of a local Namibian businessman and a Finnish mother, whereas Nyambe's mother works in England and he has been living with her in the country since a young age.

“For the last two years I have been in contact with Soiri trying to see what could work for him to play for Namibia. He has been living there for years and plays for a Finnish league. It was not an easy decision but he opted to play for Finland instead of Namibia.

“Whenever we spoke his club was off season or it was pre-season and at that time we didn't have games here. It was really difficult. He chose Finland and there is nothing we can do about it; it is water under the bridge,” said Mannetti.

On 6 October, Soiri made his debut for Finland's senior national team in a qualifying match for the 2018 World Cup against Croatia. Brought on as a substitute late in the match, he scored the equalising goal for the 1-1 draw in the 90th minute.

According to FIFA rules, a player cannot feature for two countries in national competitions.

“I also made contact with Nyambe a long time ago, even before he played against Liverpool. This is even way before people started reporting about him. His issue was more complicated because he could not make up his mind whether he wanted to play for Namibia or to play international football for England. The Namibian Football Association (NFA) tried to make contact, there was no response from his side, except for his mother who responded and made it clear that we should speak to him and his agent.

“We never got a response. As a national coach I cannot wait for years for a player to make up his mind. However, the door is still open for him to play for the Brave Warriors as he has not played for the England senior national team as yet.”

The coach emphasised that he wants players who want to add value to the team, fight for the jersey and who want to represent the country without hesitation.

“Losing Soiri to Finland is a huge loss. But there is nothing we can do anymore about that issue. As for Nyambe, he has my details, I made contact with him through various means, but if he doesn't get back to us, it means he is not convinced to play for Namibia. We would like to have Nyambe in our set-up, should he change his mind,” Mannetti stressed.

Nyambe made his mark as a football player in 2014 when he joined Blackburn Rovers Academy. In 2015 he was awarded a three-year professional contract with Rovers and in December last year he made his full debut for Blackburn against Huddersfield Town.

He has helped his club's under-21s reach the Premier League Cup final, with that contract set to expire in 2018.

LIMBA MUPETAMI

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Namibian Sun 2024-03-28

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